Marrysong Summary & Analysis
by Dennis Scott

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The Jamaican poet Dennis Scott published "Marrysong" in 1989. A loose, expanded sonnet, the poem's is about a man trying to understand his wife—a woman who, to him at least, seems unknowable and unpredictable. Using an extended metaphor, the husband compares his wife's sudden and intense emotional fluctuations to an ever-shifting landscape that he must navigate. Unable to fully understand her complex personality, the husband ultimately has to accept his wife for who she is—something that actually makes their love stronger. The best way to approach love, the poem implies, is to treat it as an unpredictable journey.

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